Mix soup mix, olive oil, garlic and pepper in large mixing bowl. Preheat oven to 400°F. Quarter potatoes. If using regular carrots, peel cut into sticks about 2″ long. Add potatoes and carrots, toss to coat with oil and seasonings. Cut breasts into 2-3 equal sized pieces. Add to bowl and mix until chicken is coated with oil and seasonings. If you have time allow the mixture to sit for a bit. You can even throw it together just before leaving to get kids from school, and let it sit covered in the fridge until you’re ready to throw it in the oven.

Spread chicken and vegetables evenly on rimmed baking sheet and bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are soft.

The 7th grader is in Student Council and announced Sunday that she needed 24 Valentine’s this morning for a StuCo, teacher Valentine project. And apparently, candy is appreciated. I heard ya! I learned that lesson when I sent candyless Valentines with the oldest to Preschool. When she came home and went through her Valentines, I saw just how much attention got paid to candyless Valentines. Wow. Lesson learned, message received, mistake not repeated.

Have I mentioned my aversion to todays store bought Valentines? I’m beginning to realize it’s right up there with my aversion to store bought Halloween Costumes… back to Valentine’s Day.

Here’s what we made …

Those are 4″ cardstock squares folded into 2″ x 4″ business card envelopes that hold a Valentine joke inside. I printed “Get ready to” on the front side of the envelope and “Happy Valentine’s Day” on the back. Folded them in half, and sewed the sides together – you could totally tape the sides closed and washi tape would be super cute! Then, so you could see that something was inside, I punched half a circle out of the top so the joke card peeks through. The candy bars are hot glued on … just so you know, Elmers was a total failure.

Fun right?

I got the jokes are from Kristen Duke Photography’s blog. They are intended as Lunch Box jokes, but they really are perfect for this project. Kristen’s only has 10 jokes and if you’d rather not have repeats in the classroom, I found these this afternoon on All for the Boys. They don’t look to be the same size, so you’ll want to make either an adjustment to the joke card, or your envelope. If you find other good business type size jokes will you post a link?

Apparently they were a hit with the StuCo advisor. <phew!> Not sure yet if these will meet the approval of the 5th grader, but I think the 2nd grader is interested. Sadly these wouldn’t be much fun for the Kindergartner, so we’re still searching for the perfect Valentine for her to give out. She may make each of her classmates a Rainbow Loom bracelet… are those still all the rage? Seemed like they were a very short lived fad here.

SNICKER VALENTINE directions: Here’s the file I used to make the 2″x4″ envelopes {SNICKERValentine_Envelopes}. Print on 8.5″x11″ cardstock, cut apart making the envelopes 4″ squares, fold in half and secure the sides with washi tape or sew them together. Mark the middle of your envelope opening with a small pencil mark. Using a 3/4 circle punch, punch a half circle centered on your pencil marking, making sure not to cut into the words. Insert a business size joke card (2″ x 3.5″), sign the back and hot glue the snicker bar to the front.

A friend gave us an really fun interactive advent calendar from Jacquie Lawson. I loved the concept and ended up sending it to my nieces too. Each family had such a fun time with this advent calendar! It has been one of the best little gifts we’ve received and given as well. I’m definitely planning on purchasing it for them again next year.

One of the little activities the Kindergartner really enjoyed was making virtual wreaths with flowers and dried fruit slices. I asked her if she wanted to make some real dried fruit slices and of course I got a very enthusiastic YES! That little project evolved into this little teacher gift and what the Kindergartner will give the Aunts this year as her handmade Christmas gift.

Super fragrant bags of Holiday Simmering Potpourri. The bag alone smells divine, and when simmered on the stove in a small sauce pan of water, the entire house smells like Christmas. It’s wonderfully soothing.

There are lots of recipes online. After consulting dozens, I went with what I had in my cupboards:

I used the verbiage from this jar for the label on our bags and found the Merry Christmas circle image via Pinterest (which I of course now can’t find any trace of to give the source credit <sigh>). The label is 1/3 a sheet of cardstock – quite convenient don’t you think. Folded in half and stapled at the top of the snack size ziplock with red raffia we tied in a bow to hide the staple. That simple and that cute!

I’m helping to host a Boy Scout Open House tomorrow night. A Scout-O-Rama of sorts. Troops from the area are coming and showing off what they do and how they service the boys in their units. I’ve asked each to have a little hands-on activity for the kids who come through. We’re also going to watch this production – A Century of Honor – which I’m super excited to see on the big screen. I’ve heard it described as “Boy Scouts, the Musical.” So true.

The Open House lasts a hour before we watch the show, and I need to keep Cub Scouts and their siblings busy. I’ve got a simple Good Turn project that should occupy them for a few minutes. I’ve made postcard style Thanksgiving Cards for the boys to color and we’ll deliver them to the local Meals on Wheels organization for their clients. I found some cute Thanksgiving coloring pages online and printed them 4-up on white cardstock and then cut them apart. Boys can color one or ten or whatever they have the patience to do. Once they get colored in every shade of crayon they are going to look fantastic!

The other activity I’ve put together, just in case we have an empty table, are simple catapults. Have you seen these on Pinterest? They are super easy to make and have been so much fun for my kids to play with! Seriously so much fun!

I made them with the notched popsicle sticks – the ones that make great snowflakes – and secured them with Rainbow Loom rubber bands. The Rainbow Loom bands are the perfect size. And the notches in the “snowflake” popsicle sticks help keep the rubber bands from slipping out of place. I used the instructions from All for the Boys.

I’m thinking Cub Scouts are going to have a blast with this tomorrow night!

We recently discovered a new muffin recipe … the first batch lasted less than 5 minutes. I double it and fill the muffin papers nearly to the top to make big fluffy muffins.

The original recipe instructions say to dip the baked muffin in melted butter and then in a cinnamon sugar mixture. I cannot bother with that extra step – there are 5 hungry kids here and I need things to come out of the oven ready to serve. So I sprinkle 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar on each muffin before I put it in the oven and they are still super tasty!

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Stir together egg, milk and 1/3 cup melted butter. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir until just moistened (batter may be lumpy). Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon in small bowl. Sprinkle tops of each muffin with cinnamon sugar.